Jamshedpur: The greenfield airport at Dhalbhumgarh in East Singhbhum district remains stuck in a clearance deadlock, with the forest department yet to approve diversion of forest land for the project.The impasse has assumed greater significance after IndiaOne Air withdrew services from Jamshedpur from Sept 1, leaving the Steel City without scheduled air connectivity.Jamshedpur’s BJP MP Bidyut Baran Mahato said he remained hopeful. Mahato met Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav in Delhi on Sept 8 and submitted a representation seeking expedited processing of the proposal.Mahato said Yadav assured him that the Centre would not delay forest clearance once the state submitted all required documents. The ministry had returned the proposal to the state in 2024 after finding discrepancies in the original submission. The file was later sent back to the forest department for correction.The project requires diversion of 99.256 hectares of forest land and felling of around 79,332 trees. The Union ministry’s expert committee had raised objections to the site, citing its proximity to the Singhbhum Elephant Reserve and a sensitive elephant corridor.In Aug 2024, the ministry sought responses from the state on 19 forest and wildlife concerns. Jamshedpur forest division and Airports Authority of India jointly prepared a compliance report and submitted it to the forest department in Aug this year.“State forest authorities have to take a call,” said a senior Kolhan forest official, requesting anonymity.The official said increased human-elephant conflict due to the airport’s proximity to the reserve and corridor remained a concern.Mahato said Yadav had also assured him that a Rs 500-crore project was being worked out to address human-elephant conflict in the region. “A meeting of forest officials from Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand will soon be convened in Delhi to discuss the issue,” he said.Located around 70 km from Jamshedpur, the airport is planned on an abandoned World War II-era airfield. Spread over 240 acres, it is proposed to have a 2,179-metre runway, expandable to 4,400 m.Then chief minister Raghubar Das laid the foundation stone in Jan 2019, but the project has made little progress amid clearance delays and ecological concerns.
